Wounds
by SkyySoriel
Summary: Some wounds don't heal...


"Augh! Dammit!" I cursed, grabbing my shoe and yanking it off in my anger. Another damn rock. I was so _sick_ of these rocks. I tossed the piece-of-trash rock out of my shoe and then put the shoe back on. I was in the middle of the stupid forest which lead me to wonder how on earth all of these rocks were getting into my _boots_? I had been walking for maybe five minutes. I sighed and tried to forget about it. I could already tell it was going to be a horrible day.

Not ten more minutes into my walk, another rock mysteriously leaped into the air and flew into my boot. I was about to blow a fuse and tear up my boots when someone appeared out of the trees in front of me. I had known my day was going to be horrible. The blood in my veins went cold with hatred. It was Luke. His eyes fell on me and then immediately shone with excitement. The sight of it made me want to puke.

"What the hell are you doing here, reject?" I tried to sound as rude as possible in the hope that it'd frighten him off, but he only looked mildly discouraged. Damn it.

"Asch," he said my name as if I was some sort of ghost. There was such surprise and shock in it, but there was kindness in it too. My insides twisted in anger.

"Do you mind moving out of my way? I've got things to do."

Luke, of course, didn't seem to hear me. He looked at the shoe in my hand and then back up at me, "What's-?"

I just rose my eyebrows and pointed my finger at a random rock on the ground. I didn't realize how many rocks there were here, but there certainly were a lot. Luke bent down and picked one up, analyzing it.

"They're pretty," he mused, holding it up in the sun. The rock caught the sun like a crystal, and a blue light sparkled around him. He put the rock down and looked up at me sympathetically. "It's too bad they're so sharp, though."

I snorted and put my shoe back on, walking around him. "Get out my way." I really did want to get moving. I needed to make it to the next city by nightfall, and my only means of transportation was by foot. If I was lucky I'd get there by afternoon. If I slacked off, I would be very upset.

But the stupid idiot blocked my path. "Asch," he started. "There's a hole on the bottom of your shoe. Let me help you-"

"No," I nearly yelled. "Where are your idiotic friends, anyways? Go run back to them."

Luke didn't move, though. Him and his stupid selective hearing. He's so aggravating. "Where are you going? Don't you think you should fix your shoe?"

"Augh!" I stomped around him, causing dust to fly in the air, "I'll fix my damn shoe when I want to fix it!"

"Asch!" Luke called after me, following me like some stupid lost mutt.

I turned on him, "What the hell do you want, Replica?! You're really pissing me off!!"

"I… Well," he looked down, almost embarrassed. And then he seemed to mentally shake himself, and his eyes were clear again. "I was just sort of…going for a walk. Hey, Asch, you really should go visit us. Natalia really could -"

"No, no, no, no, NO!" I yelled, resuming my angry walk, "I have nothing to do with them, or YOU. Don't you ever forget that!"

Luke's voice turned desperate, "But _Natalia_!"

"Get AWAY _from me_!" I tried to outrun him, I don't really know why. Now that I think about it, that was a really stupid and immature move. But something about the way he was saying Natalia's name… I couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand thinking about Natalia…but I couldn't stand the fact that others thought about her, too…

Luke wasn't lying when he said there was a hole in my shoe. I guess I should've checked earlier, but the rocks were really making me angry and I hadn't been thinking straight. I paid for it when one logged itself into my heel while I was trying to lose Luke. It was sharp. It hurt a lot. I pounded my fist in anger at the first tree in my path, but I really had no other choice but to stop and get the rock out. Luke caught up.

"Why the hell won't you listen to me?" Luke yelled. "This isn't about me or you, this is about _Natalia_."

That name again… He says that name as if I'd actually stop and listen to him. I took off my shoe and investigated the damage. Sure enough, the rock was lodged into my heel pretty deeply.

"Asch," the buzzing continued. "Don't play dumb with me, I know you care about her. I know she cares a lot about _you_."

He waited, but I was trying to dig the rock out of my heel. It was quite painful. I might've even been jamming the rock further into my heel the way I had been trying to get it out.

"Asch…" Luke's voice lowered and he sounded sad. "Natalia's hurt."

My mind froze and I looked up in shock, "Is she-?"

"She's fine," he quickly assured me, but my mind was still ravaging with anxiety. "Her leg is messed up, though. She hasn't been able to walk for awhile, and that makes her mind run wild." His eyes got wide and serious, "She really wants to see you, Asch. She's being driven crazy by it."

But my mind couldn't quite make sense of it, "Does she have an infection? Is she running a fever?"

Luke looked at me with an expression I didn't quite understand, "She's not _sick_, Asch. She misses you."

"Misses me?" My confusion was apparent. "But she's a princess."

It was Luke's turn to be confused now. "What does being a princess have to do with it? She's still human. And humans miss the people they love."

Love? Surely Luke was wrong. Natalia may have loved me once before, but not anymore. She had Luke now. She had her friends. Natalia and I were worlds apart, and I could never be part of her life again. "That's ridiculous," I said, my voice low. "Her missing me is just the pain speaking."

"Asch, you-"

"Luke!" I shouted, "Don't you see?" My voice sounded desperate, but I didn't care, "_You_ are "Luke" now. Not me, most definitely not me. I'm just another soldier in the darkness. I am not the one Natalia misses. Rest assured, I can _never_ be the one Natalia misses."

Luke just looked at me. It was in that moment that any trace of humanity was absent from him. He had not been born like others. He looked otherworldly. He appeared to be so different. I looked away, scared of what he might know of me. Scared that he knew how I really feel. Natalia did not mean nothing to me… She meant the far opposite. But there was nothing I could do…

"You're supposed to be my replacement," I muttered. "Do your job right."

I could hear Luke take a step away from me. He paused next to a tree, leaning against it and looking out into the forest. "I think I like Tear," he said, out of the blue. I would've been really angry if I wasn't taken by such surprise.

"Excuse me?"

"No, I really _do_ like Tear. A lot. But I can't bring myself to tell her… I lack the courage."

"What is this: _feelings time?_ I really couldn't care less about you or Tear, _Dreck_."

"I know. But… You and I aren't so different."

_Oh, really?_ I couldn't help thinking. I mean, it's not like he's an identical replica of me or something…

Luke started playing with his hands unconsciously. It looked like he was deep in thought. I don't really know why I stayed. I suppose I didn't necessarily _hate_ Luke, but I certainly didn't like him. I didn't really want to sit here and listen to him talk about Tear, but… I didn't really think he was going to, anyways. The way he was looking out into the forest… His eyes were so different from usual. He looked so much older than just a seven year old or a teenager. He looked reminiscent of a long life lived. I can't really lie about it; that look intrigued me.

After a few more moments of silence, I decided to draw him out of his thoughts. "What do you mean by that?"

"By what?" He looked over like he was just waking up.

"You said you and I aren't so different."

He breathed in slowly, looking up at the trees. "We both care about someone. But we both don't say anything about it."

"It's not the same, Dreck." I insulted him, but my heart wasn't quite in it.

"You care about Natalia; I care about Tear. Neither of them know."

"Natalia knows."

Luke shook his head, "You certainly do your best to prove it otherwise."

"I do not."

Luke rose his eyebrows but smiled and looked away. But his eyes got serious again, "Natalia really does miss you, you know. I hear her crying sometimes, when she thinks no one can hear. She's not crying for me."

My heart lurched, but I pushed the feeling away. "You don't know why she's crying."

Luke looked me straight in the eye, "Yes, I do."

I bit my lip. What was up with Luke all of a sudden? I did not like the direction this conversation was headed. "The moment that you were created, Natalia was written out of my life. She is no longer any of my business."

"She's _every part _of your business. You can't hide from every single part of your past. Natalia's waiting for you with open arms. She _loves _you, Asch!"

I couldn't take much more. Like a child throwing a fit, I covered my ears with my hands and yelled, "No, STOP!"

Luke did stop, but the buzzing in my head continued. _Natalia_, my mind whispered. _Natalia._ I did. I did love her. I still love her. I'll love her until the day I die. I could never love anyone else as much as I love Natalia. But I couldn't be with her. I couldn't be with my past. I had to keep moving forward, because my past was no longer my own. I couldn't go back. It wasn't possible.

But the stupid dreck kept telling me it was.

"Please, stop." The words burned my throat, but if Luke mentioned her one more time, I'd go insane. He seemed to understand, and he turned back to the forest.

"I don't know how I should tell Tear."

I looked out into the forest, too, trying to see what he saw. I sighed, giving up. "Me neither."

He looked over at me and smiled. Then he pushed himself off of the tree and brushed his shirt off, "I should get going. They're probably wondering where I went. Will your foot be alright?"

I looked down at my heel, which was still bleeding slightly. I had gotten the rock out, though. "Yeah, I'll be fine."

Luke nodded and began to walk, but then he turned around at the last minute. "We all would welcome you if you ever wanted to visit." His voice had been almost a plead, but there was defeat in it too. We both knew that I would never visit them. I would never tell Natalia how I felt. I would never try to associate with them. It made both of us sad.

But he smiled at me like I was going to, anyways. And then he kept walking, leaving Natalia in my thoughts…

Sometimes I really hated Luke…


End file.
